MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

Ashway: March Madness fully explained

A pair of 11 seeds reached the Sweet Sixteen, but no fives and a single three. All the four seeds advanced, but only three ones and two twos. The denigrated SEC went undefeated, advancing all three teams, the same number as the Big Ten and the Pac-12. And that’s two more than the mighty ACC, which saw five teams fall.

If anyone can explain this insanity, it’s the folks most responsible: the coaches themselves. Here’s what they had to say at their official post-game press conferences, as transcribed by asapsports.com. But more vital for our purposes, here’s what they wanted to say as well:

Translation: Did it look as awful to you guys as it did from the bench?

Jim Crews, Saint Louis: All of it was improvised. You shouldn’t do things you never practice, but we were in a position we had to do that.

Translation: Coaching’s overrated. Coaching got us 16 down. Playing a trapping defense we’d never practiced won us the game.

Mark Gottfried, NC State: It’s heartbreaking. It’s hard to explain.

Translation: I got outcoached. We didn’t see them trap on film.

Josh Pastner, Memphis: I want to recognize the best AD in the country, Tom Bowen, right there, and our deputy, best deputy AD, Wren Baker. They’re the best in the business.

Translation: It’s contract renewal time!

Cliff Ellis, Coastal Carolina: They showed why they’re good. They didn’t panic when we took the lead. They stayed the course. They played tremendous defense.

Translation: Naturally, we drew Virginia, the only ACC team in the tournament that had a clue.

Bob Hoffman, Mercer: Our guys believed they could win. You can conquer anything if you have the belief they do in each other and their skill set.

Translation: We believe the ACC in general and Duke in particular were overhyped and overrated.

Mike Krzyzewski, Duke: I love this game, and when the game’s played really well, I hope it’s us that’s playing it. But when it’s the other team, you applaud it. I applaud Mercer, they were absolutely terrific today.

Translation: Mercer Bears. Monsters of Macon. Those guys played like Lehigh today!

Brad Underwood, Stephen F. Austin: Miracles truly do happen! What a game! What a game!

Translation: Miracles truly do happen! What a game! What a game!

Steve Alford, UCLA: Coming off the Pac-12 tournament, we played really well and shot the ball at a high level and I thought Tulsa did a great job in the first half in particular and we got out of rhythm, and we didn’t make shots we normally had been making but for forty minutes our defense was really consistent I thought and we held them to 34 percent on one half and 38 percent the next and to hold them to that and did a much better job on the boards on the second half.

Translation: I read a lot of Faulkner.

Archie Miller, Dayton: I’m happy for our administration, I’m happy for our city, I’m happy for our fans, I’m happy for our players. There isn’t a better place to play basketball than the University of Dayton.

Translation: I’m the most happy fella.

Bo Ryan, Wisconsin: How many fast break points did they get in the first half? How many did they get in the second half? Zero. Oregon. One of the quickest teams in the country.